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Garden gnomes apparently stolen from lawns in the Weatherly area sit atop a desk hutch at the Weatherly Police Department.

STEVE MOCARSKY/THE TIMES LEADER

WEATHERLY – Let’s just say the roaming days for these gnomes are over.
Borough police took about 15 of them into custody on Tuesday.
Police began receiving reports of stolen lawn ornaments about a year ago. They caught a break in the case on Sept. 9 while responding to a domestic disturbance call, said police Chief Gary Veasie.
When officers responded to a home on Second Street for a report of “a juvenile out of control,” the 16-year-old boy for whom they were called was gone, but the officers found his room full of garden gnomes – as well as some suspected drugs, Veasie said.
“The parent said the gnomes weren’t (the boy’s) and that most likely he acquired them somehow. So the mother brought them down to us and we now have a collection of these gnomes, which seems to have gotten everybody’s attention. We’re asking anybody missing a gnome in the Weatherly area to call us,” Veasie said.
Weatherly area gnome theft victims can call police at 427-4241.
Veasie said he received about 25 calls from people inquiring about missing gnomes after a story about the gnome discovery hit a Hazleton newspaper on Wednesday. Carbon County 911 received another 20 or so calls.
“A lot of people that have called up, surprisingly, have been elderly females, probably in their 70s, 80s, who are real concerned about their gnomes,” Veasie said.
Most calls have been from the Hazleton area, but some have been from as far away as Nesquehoning, Veasie said.
“They had some fountains and different things that were stolen, but the only things we have recovered are these gnomes,” the chief said, glancing over at the group of ornaments arranged on a hutch over a computer desk in the police station.
The investigating officer will go through the list of callers today and try to match the gnomes with their owners.
“I really don’t know what the fetish is with these gnomes. You wouldn’t find them in my yard, but everybody’s got their thing,” Veasie said.
As far as the suspected gnomenapper, no charges have been filed yet, as the investigation continues, Veasie said.
What about motive?
“You always see that Travelocity commercial, that traveling gnome. I guess people will take gnomes off other people’s property and they’ll take them to landmarks – the White House, the Eiffel Tower, stuff like that – and they’ll take a picture of the gnome by the landmark.
“Then they’ll bring it back to the people that they took it from, give them the gnome and the pictures with the landmarks … and they call him the Traveling Gnome. That’s how they get the Traveling Gnome Theory,” Veasie said.
“If that was the case, this kid didn’t make it very far. He only made it to Weatherly,” Veasie said.
At least one Weatherly family isn’t taking any more chances with its garden gnome.
Packer Street resident Anna Mae Cheslock said her gnome disappeared for a few days last summer.
Her son, who has since passed away, found it on someone else’s property, retrieved it, repainted it and chained it to a tree in his parents’ yard.
And it’s not the first outdoor theft the Cheslocks suffered.
Anna Mae’s husband, Paul, said a bicycle was stolen from their property earlier this year but was returned to their yard a few weeks later.